Term
| Hereditary Factors - What are the Parent-Child studies that provide evidence for substance abuse? |
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Definition
Melo - Animals that preferred alcoholic drinks were selected and bred. Offspring showed alcohol preference
Schuckit - 454 males aged 20 were given alcohol challenge. 40% of sons of alcoholics and 10% of sons of non alcoholics reported low intoxication. Ten years later, sons were interviewed and alcoholism found in 43% of low intoxication sons and 11% of high intoxication sons. |
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Term
| What are the strengths of the Melo study? |
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Definition
-Fewer ethical issues
-Short gestation period |
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Term
| What is the limitation of the Melo study? |
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Definition
| -animal study so ungeneralisable to humans |
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Term
| What is the strength of the Schuckit study? |
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Definition
| -Shows we inherit alcohol sensitivity levels |
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Term
| What is the limitation of the Shuckit study? |
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Definition
| -Interview is self report so response bias |
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Term
| Hereditary Factors - What are the Twin studies that provide evidence for substance abuse? |
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Definition
-Kaij - concordance rates for substance abuse when one twin was a known abuser MZ Twins 54% DZ Twins 28%
McGue - concordance rates of alcohol abuse defined by DSMII male MZ 77%, female MZ 39%, male DZ 54%, female DZ 42% |
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Term
| What are the strengths of the twin studies? |
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Definition
| -McGue study shows sex differences in concordance rates |
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Term
| What are the weaknesses of the twin studies? |
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Definition
-Twins often grow up in same environment and treated alike
-Mid to low concordance rates
-Small samples
-McGue study shows sex differences in concordance rates so other factors involved |
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Term
| Hereditary Factors - What are the Adoption studies that provide evidence for substance abuse? |
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Definition
Peters and Preedy - 18% of adoptees with 1 biological parent developed alcoholism whereas only 5% of adoptees with no abuse in biological parents developed alcoholism
Croniger - Alcohol abuse levels taken from biological and adoptive parents of 1724 Swedish male adoptees. If biological father abused 18% of adoptees did, if biological fathers didn't only 3% became abusers. Largest number of abusers had both biological and adoptive fathers abused. |
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Term
| What are the weaknesses of the adoption studies? |
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Definition
-age of adoption varies
-stress due to being adopted may lead to substance abuse
-children often adopted into similar families |
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Term
| Hereditary Factors - What are the Gene Mapping studies that provide evidence for substance abuse? |
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Definition
| Melo - Link between abnormal genes and abuse, 60% of abusers have abnormal dopamine receptor genes, 50% of cocaine users have abnormal genes |
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Term
| How is dopamine and seratonin linked to abuse? |
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Definition
-Dopamine found in reward pathway (linked to pleasure) but also needed for survival
-Release of dopamine leaves us 'wanting more' (addicts are sensitive to dopamine)
-Seratonin tells us we've had enough (which should control dopamine) |
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Term
| What are the weaknesses of gene mapping? |
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Definition
-Research is in infancy
-Predisposition is not certainty
-drinking gene is unlikely, a family lack of control is more probable (Plomin) |
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Term
| What are the weaknesses of hereditary factors? |
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Definition
-Research may be unethical, eg drinking game needs full informed consent, protection from harm
-Lack of strong statistics
-reductionist
-deterministic |
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Term
| Personality factors - What is the link between extroversion and substance abuse? |
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Definition
| Flory - found alcohol abuse was associated with high levels of extroversion. Extroverts are outgoing, sociable and easily bored. |
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Term
| Personality factors - What is the link between conscientiousness and substance abuse? |
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Definition
| McAdams - found low conscientiousness was associated with alcohol abuse. Low conscientiousness is shown by a person being disorganised, careless and unreliable. |
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Term
| Personality factors - What is the link between APD and substance abuse? |
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Definition
| A person with APD disregards rules, has little concern for truth, shows physical aggression inappropriately and may be extremely irritable |
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Term
| Personality factors - What are the studies into APD and substance abuse? |
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Definition
Fabrega - found 40% of people seeking therapy for APD were abusing
Morgenstern - structured interview to identify personality characteristics and patterns of alcohol abuse was carried out with 336 abusers. APD was found to be associated with alcohol abuse. |
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Term
| What is the assumptions of the psychodynamic explanation of offending? |
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Definition
-People who abuse substances have strong dependency needs which can be traced back to childhood
-There is a personality dimension to dependency, meaning if parents fail to satisfy a child's need, the child will grow up to be a person who is in an over reliant on others to provide comfort, nurture and reassurance
-If others fail to provide this, drugs may provide substitute comfort and reassurance so create dependency and addiction. |
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Term
| What are the weaknesses of the influence of personality factors? |
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Definition
-wide range of personality factors have been linked to abuse so different studies link different traits to abuse
-no single personality type has been found to offer a significant explanation
-establishing cause and effect is impossible in correlational studies
-does personality type cause abuse or abuse cause personality type
-most research is into alcohol abuse because participants are more readily available so not representative of all substances |
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Term
| What are the social factors influencing substance abuse? |
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Definition
-Normative conformity, majority influence - not wanting to be left out
-Peer pressure - linked to a person's character and ability to resist
-social anxiety - substance used to help them relax |
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Term
| How does family and role models influence substance abuse? |
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Definition
| -People learn to abuse via social learning, role models and reinforcement |
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Term
| What are the studies for role models and family influence on substance abuse? |
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Definition
White - longitudinal study where data was collected four times between age 15 and 28 found parental modelling affected child's behaviour, especially drinking
Stein - found alcohol abuse is influenced by role models |
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Term
| How does peer influence influence substance abuse? |
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Definition
Pressure, encouragement, conformity, time spent with peers
-social selection - who we choose to be friends with |
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Term
| What are the studies for peer influence on substance abuse? |
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Definition
Garner and Stein - 198 children in longitudinal study where mums and children given questionnaires and looked at family, peers and relationships. The best predictor of abuse was similar peer behaviour.
Brook - marijuana abuse most affected by peer influence
Reed and Roundtree - studied group pressure and social selection
Bricker - examined smoking transitions in 6006 10-17 year olds and peers are most influential in starting smoking, parents most influential when progressing smoking |
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Term
| What are the social norms influencing substance abuse? |
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Definition
Cultures will differ in terms of what use/abuse is acceptable
Eg In Taiwan - being drunk is socially acceptable while while in Korea it is seen as being socially acceptable |
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Term
| What are the limitations of the influence of social norms? |
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Definition
-mixed evidence regarding parent / peer influence
-combination of social and personality factors involved (use to abuse due to personality and starting use due to social)
-Personality can contradict peer influence
-Social pressures can work against each other
-People often conform to 'perceived norm'
-Methodologies involved
-Deterministic
-Reductionist |
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